Thanksgiving found us headed down to PA to spend it with my family. It’s been years since we traveled down, never wanting to close the shop on the shopping weekend after the feast. This year it just didn’t seem that important to be open. People that are shopping on that day are out in search of cheap, marked down discount items – and that is not what we sell. Sounded like the weather was awful up here, so it’s just as well we headed out of town for a few days.

Though in some ways I feel that I haven’t been very true to my training plan so far, I have at least been mostly getting the rides/time under my belt. Wednesday morning before heading out on the road, I managed an early morning hour on the trails in Stowe. Though my thermometer said 38 degrees, it felt much warmer. My body appreciated the exercise before the 8 hour drive.

riding through the art

riding through the art

Thanksgiving morning we left K with my parents and headed over to South Mountain to join the Valley Mountain Biker’s annual thanksgiving ride. Over 40 riders turned out on the damp and foggy morning for this ride, which was as advertised – big and slow. But loads of fun. I love how friendly folks are outside of New England. Happy to share their trails, sad to say that you don’t always get that sort of vibe up here.

It was my first time on those trails, and they were a lot of fun. Fairly buff and fast rolling, a couple of good PA style rock gardens. some tough climbing and a few really slick bridges and logs. We ended up having to bail a little early so we could get to the 1st of two family dinners, but it was a good outing.

Salisbury rocks

Salisbury rocks

Saturday was departure day, but we still wanted to get a second ride in and headed over to the Salisbury trails. I’ve ridden there more than a few times now. It’s got 8 miles of purpose built singletrack and has a great flow and lots of rocks. This was my first outing here on the hardtail singlespeed and wasn’t sure if i’d end up totally beat up afterwards, but in reality it was fine. There was nothing unsuitable for the bike i brought.